damo
New member
Following on from a quiz question, I have read a fascinating (to me anyway!) book, reviewed like this...
"Wreck at Sharpnose Point, by Jeremy Seal. ISBN 0 330 37463 X
Published by Picador, an imprint of Pan McMillan Ltd. 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR. £15.99 plus postage, or available from bookshops to order.
While walking through a cliff-top graveyard in Morwenstow, Devon, Jeremy Seal stumbled across the wooden figurehead of the brig Caledonia, which was wrecked at this location in 1842. Thus started a meticulous research of the circumstances of this incident, which cost the lives of all but one member of the crew. The Reverend Hawker had given an account of the burial of the bodies and the report of the sole survivor – but this left much unsaid, and had numerous inconsistencies to unravel.
Jeremy Seal has produced a masterful account detailing his areas of research and has produced a unique book. It combines fact with ‘faction’ and would form a most useful reference for other researchers into the question "how to.." The writing is in the form of what can best be described as a travelogue with flashes backwards in time exploring the trades and backgrounds associated with the voyages in which the Caledonia was engaged. This is related directly to the original research carried out on site with wonderful pen pictures of his informants. We examine the possible exaggeration of the reports by the Reverend Hawker, and the reasons for so doing and gain an insight into myth and mystery – the message in a bottle being but one.
The Caledonia, under Captain Stevenson Peter of Arbroath was a mundane cargo carrier of the early 19th. Century, and through Jeremy Seal’s pen we gain an insight into the operation of the Corn Laws and the effect this had on trade, leading to the ill-fated passage from Odessa to Falmouth for orders. Ordered to discharge her cargo of Russian wheat in Gloucester she left in apparently good weather, only to be wrecked in a severe hurricane, which sprang up and embayed the vessel off Sharpnose Point, Morwenstow on the 8th. September 1842.
I found this hardback a wonderfully fresh account and the flash-backs only added to the interest. It is an excellent book and would make a worthy read for either the maritime historian or the person interested in the local history of the alleged ‘wreckers’ of the North Devon and Cornish coasts."
PS Sharpnose Point has some of the best rock climbing in the UK, and is worth a visit even if only to look at the spectacular rock architecture. It isn't usually viewed from close off-shore since we generally stay quite a way off that coast!
"Wreck at Sharpnose Point, by Jeremy Seal. ISBN 0 330 37463 X
Published by Picador, an imprint of Pan McMillan Ltd. 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR. £15.99 plus postage, or available from bookshops to order.
While walking through a cliff-top graveyard in Morwenstow, Devon, Jeremy Seal stumbled across the wooden figurehead of the brig Caledonia, which was wrecked at this location in 1842. Thus started a meticulous research of the circumstances of this incident, which cost the lives of all but one member of the crew. The Reverend Hawker had given an account of the burial of the bodies and the report of the sole survivor – but this left much unsaid, and had numerous inconsistencies to unravel.
Jeremy Seal has produced a masterful account detailing his areas of research and has produced a unique book. It combines fact with ‘faction’ and would form a most useful reference for other researchers into the question "how to.." The writing is in the form of what can best be described as a travelogue with flashes backwards in time exploring the trades and backgrounds associated with the voyages in which the Caledonia was engaged. This is related directly to the original research carried out on site with wonderful pen pictures of his informants. We examine the possible exaggeration of the reports by the Reverend Hawker, and the reasons for so doing and gain an insight into myth and mystery – the message in a bottle being but one.
The Caledonia, under Captain Stevenson Peter of Arbroath was a mundane cargo carrier of the early 19th. Century, and through Jeremy Seal’s pen we gain an insight into the operation of the Corn Laws and the effect this had on trade, leading to the ill-fated passage from Odessa to Falmouth for orders. Ordered to discharge her cargo of Russian wheat in Gloucester she left in apparently good weather, only to be wrecked in a severe hurricane, which sprang up and embayed the vessel off Sharpnose Point, Morwenstow on the 8th. September 1842.
I found this hardback a wonderfully fresh account and the flash-backs only added to the interest. It is an excellent book and would make a worthy read for either the maritime historian or the person interested in the local history of the alleged ‘wreckers’ of the North Devon and Cornish coasts."
PS Sharpnose Point has some of the best rock climbing in the UK, and is worth a visit even if only to look at the spectacular rock architecture. It isn't usually viewed from close off-shore since we generally stay quite a way off that coast!
